Am I in my characters–Round Robin February 2018

This month, our Round Robin is about how we create our characters. When I write my characters, how much of the character is me? How much is it influenced by people I know? And do I ever learn anything from my characters?

Honestly, there’s probably a little bit of me in every heroine. Not necessarily my personality, but I’ll pull from that personal experience of what fear/anger/happiness/hope/etc. is like and try to translate that into my character’s viewpoint.

There are times when the amount of me in the heroine is minimal. Those are the most challenging to write. For instance, the heroine in my current WIP is very timid. Some of this is a spillover from her animal, which is a snow leopard. Incorporating her background, her personality, her animal traits, her culture, and how she views the world into the story has been very challenging. A foreign country, a foreign mindset.

I have drawn on personality traits from people I’ve met, or know, and, at other times, the character appears—warts and all.

Often, though, I feel as if I am going on the journey with my characters. To write the story, I have to see through their eyes, be in their skin. Some days, it’s easier than others.

So, the short answer: yes, to all of it…sometimes. LOL

Please visit the other authors who are participating in this month’s Round Robin:

Honestly, Anne, I don’t know how we’d write characters without drawing from ourselves or those around us. How do you write something in a person you haven’t observed, felt, heard (or heard about), known? And that’s pretty impossible now with TV, social media, etc. We are exposed to everything. Sometimes, that’s good; sometimes, not so much. LOL

My heroines are always a bit like me too, Marci. i would find it extremely difficult to make someone up from scratch, someone who would be completely different from me. In my case, it would be an extrovert, or a super confident woman…

Even super confident women have insecurities. Xue isn’t super confident, though. Most people would think that I am, but that’s a really good front on my part. LOL However, I’m not timid. LOL That’s where the struggle for me comes in with this particular character.

I think humans want mostly the same things…unless you’re a psycho/sociopath, Rhobin. We also are plagued with the same emotions. Those might express in different ways due to our experiences, but, for the most part, everyone has known sadness, fear, joy, love, etc, at some point in their lives. (At least, we would hope they’d’ve known love and joy, too.)

Most of my protagonists are women who aren’t afraid to punch a man in the nose because, frankly, I like punching idiots in the nose. I wrote a timid character once too, but in the middle of it I discovered that you don’t have to punch a man in the nose to be brave.

She’s facing her own fears and powering through despite them. There’s frustration at not being the brave, go-get-em woman for her when she needs top be, AJ. I don’t know if that’s my frustration bleeding over into her storyline, or if it’s truly hers. LOL

I have to agree with you there, Bob. Snow leopards are much more glamorous than a mud frog. However, what an interesting choice for an animal for your character. I imagine it poses some challenges in writing her viewpoint. Do you incorporate the animal’s natural instincts within your heroine’s personality?